Summary: While infiltrating Weston College, Ciel runs across a boy doing his own investigation into the mysterious principal. This stranger is more than he at first appears and may hold the key to solving a problem that Ciel didn't even know he had. No pairings to speak of, just a good, old fashioned story.
Hello, all. Welcome to Dance With the Devil, my first Kuroshitsuji fanfic. Technically, this will be alternate universe, but only because the manga is not complete and as soon as a new chapter is put out, this story is going to deviate from the manga. Other than that, I'm going to try to follow the manga from chapters 1-75 as cannon. Some concepts may be my own interpretation and may end up proven wrong in new chapters as Yana Toboso goes on with the story.
Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji and all characters contained therein do not belong to me and I make no money off of the writing of this fanfic. More's the pity. *grin*
Ch. 1: Cutting a Deal
"A contract with a demon, eh?"
Ciel Phantomhive froze, not moving from his position, hunched over a notebook and the volume of European history he was studying. He knew his marked eye wasn't visible. He could feel the straps of his eye patch pressing into his skin. Not that it usually mattered. In this age of enlightenment, the number of humans that even believed in demons was dropping by the day. Most people just thought he had an unfortunate defect when they saw his eye.
"It's well established, too. How long has he been waiting for your soul?"
"I beg your pardon." Ciel turned, glaring at the boy leaning against the bookcase with an impish smile plastered across his face. He had pale green eyes and dark, almost black hair pulled back into a braid at the base of his neck. He wore the standard school uniform and pronounced canines peeked out from under his upper lip. Was he a demon, himself?
"Oh, don't play coy, Ciel Phantomhive. I can see the seal branded into your soul. I've never seen a binding so tight. He owns you lock, stock and barrel, eh?"
Ciel narrowed his eye at the cocky boy.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, how rude of me," the boy said, pushing away from the bookshelf with an insincere smirk. "My name is Zebulon Butterfield. At your service." He gave a brief, mocking bow.
"That, sir, is quite possibly the most ridiculous name I have ever heard."
"And Ciel Phantomhive is better?"
"It at least has dignity, and history…Mr. Butterfield."
"Please, call me Zeb. Everyone does." The boy grinned, revealing that his pronounced canines were not, in fact, fangs, but an illusion caused by the crookedness of the rest of his teeth. Ciel lifted his lip in a sneer.
"I hardly think it appropriate to speak on such familiar terms with someone who obviously lacks any training in proper deportment." Ciel lifted his head so he could appear to look down his nose at the presumptuous twit.
"Oh, you truly are the pompous ass, aren't you? I'd love to be a fly on the wall when your demon sucks that arrogant soul down," Zeb said, but his eyes belied the angry words, twinkling with mirth and good humor.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Ciel looked back down at his studies, effectively dismissing the lout. Zeb snorted with laughter and the young human's teeth clenched. He very dearly wanted to summon Sebastian and put the arrogant prick in his place, but Zeb already knew more than he should.
"Oh, I shouldn't laugh. I can only imagine what horror you suffered to make such a contract appealing…unless you're one of those idiots just looking for a quick path to power and wealth? But…no. You don't seem the type. Power, you have as a Phantomhive…and wealth." Zeb sighed and sat down across from Ciel, holding a hand out across the table. "Truce? I mean you and your demon no harm. I wouldn't have bothered you at all, except….I could use your help."
Ciel stared at the offered hand as though it held a fistful of rotting garbage. With a sigh, the older boy took his hand back.
"I suppose it's too much to ask of the great Phantomhive." He rested his head against his palm, propped up on the table. The fingers of his other hand drummed on the polished wooden surface as he stared across the library, deep in thought.
"What are you?"
Zeb glanced over, a smile creasing his cheeks.
"I thought you might catch on quickly, and I suppose, since I know your secret, I owe you mine."
"Are you a grim reaper?" Ciel asked, instantly on the defensive.
"A landscaper?! Oh hell, no!" Zeb laughed. He seemed a very merry sort…in a rather dark and twisted way. "No. They want nothing to do with me and mine, although I suppose we do have a bit in common. They'd never admit it, though. No, I'm a dhampir."
"A…what?" Ciel's flat tone and furrowed brow made Zeb scowl.
"Oh, come, now. You know the truth about demons and grim reapers. Is it such a stretch to believe that vampires and their half-human bastards are real?"
"I suppose not, but…can you prove it?"
Zeb chuckled and his bright green eyes seemed to darken, thick lashes lowering over those peridot irises.
"Oh, you don't want me to do that. You'd be out of commission for the rest of the day and then I'd have to fight it out with your demon. I really don't feel like dying today."
"If you're so powerful, what do you need me for?" Ciel asked, scowling.
"Well, it's not so much you as your demon. Power, I have. Subtlety, not so much. I'm investigating the principal here. Now, I could bull my way through to his office, but that wouldn't guarantee me the answers I need and it would, most likely, leave a swath of corpses and invalids in my wake. Not to mention, my particular brand of power only works on certain creatures. Not knowing exactly what the principal is, I think it's best if I have more information first."
"What he is?" Ciel frowned. Zeb's words matched some of his own suspicions, namely that the principal was no more human than Sebastian. Could that have anything to do with the students he was there to find and question? It seemed unlikely that the two would be unrelated. "What are you offering?"
Zeb sighed.
"You couldn't just be willing to do a favor for a friend?"
Ciel gave him the look he so richly deserved. Besides not considering the dhampir anything near a friend, no one knew better than he that nothing in life came free.
"No, I suppose not. Well, there is one thing I could do for you, but I'm not sure you'd be interested. After all, most humans don't care much about a starving demon." He sighed and shook his head. "I shouldn't have even bothered."
Zeb stood, turning to go and Ciel almost let him leave, but…
"What do you mean by 'starving demon'?"
The dhampir paused, looking over his shoulder at the Lord Phantomhive. The wary tone of the boy's voice told him more than Ciel could ever guess. No one sounded like that unless they truly cared about the subject in question.
Zeb eased back into the chair, one eyebrow lifted in curiosity.
"I suppose you can't see it, being only human. Your demon is practically wasting away for want of food. They don't need much, but the more power they use, the sooner they need to feed. I don't know what you've done to yours, but he's running low. Very low."
Ciel scowled at the dhampir. He wanted to argue the point, but his mind went back to the Campania, the blow Sebastian had taken from Undertaker's death scythe and the battle with the zombies in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic that followed. He remembered how the demon had coughed blood…a condition he'd only ever faked, before. He'd rested when he came home, but Ciel couldn't remember him ever eating anything.
"That's utterly ridiculous," Ciel said, ever the stubborn one. "He is free to feed any time he wants."
"Is he?" Zeb laughed and sighed, his face that of a tutor with a particularly dense student. "His contract is with you. His next meal is your soul, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then how can he feed on anything else? He must see the contract through to earn his next meal. Why else would a demon ever bother answering to a lowly human? Even if he took another soul, now, it would be like drinking water to sate a bone-deep hunger. Only a contracted soul can truly satisfy and a demon can only hold one contract at a time. No one can serve two masters."
Ciel glared at Zeb. His hand itched to lash out and strike that condescending look from the dhampir's face.
"And what do you know of demons?"
Zeb laughed and bared his crooked teeth at Ciel.
"What don't I know? My family has hunted the inhuman creatures of this world for centuries. Our library is…extensive."
Ciel looked away, glaring at the books lining the shelves. Sebastian hadn't said a word…but, then, he wouldn't. If he tried to consume Ciel's soul, now, he would break the contract, and if what Zeb said was true, it would no longer satisfy if he did that. Could the demon die of starvation? Ciel had never thought to ask.
"You still haven't told me what you're offering."
Zeb grinned. Ciel hadn't actually agreed to the deal, but he knew the boy was interested. Now, to set the hook.
"I have a…unique ability. I can harvest a piece of your soul for your demon to consume. It is not a pleasant experience, but it would leave you alive and only a bit weakened for a limited time. The soul will regenerate over time. Because it is not your entire soul, it would not break the contract for your demon to consume what I harvest, but since it is under contract, it would help to restore him."
Ciel frowned as he thought the proposal over. He couldn't be sure that Zeb was trustworthy. After all, the older boy wanted something from him. And yet…there had been something off about Sebastian since they returned from the North Atlantic. He could happily kill the demon for keeping this from him…and very well might, if he didn't do something about it, now.
"I will agree to this, on one condition."
Zeb lifted an eyebrow in inquiry.
"The demon will be here and under orders from me to destroy you if anything you have said turns out to be false."
"Fair enough," Zeb said with a nod. "My life for yours if you find me to be duplicitous and your demon freed to find a decent meal."
Ciel wasn't sure he liked how the dhampir phrased that, but Sebastian had sworn never to lie to him. He didn't trust much, but he did trust the contract. Reaching up, he pulled the patch away from his marked eye.
"Sebastian, come to me."
"My Lord." The demon appeared from the shadows as though he'd been there all along, his black warden's robes billowing around him. He spotted Zeb and stopped, eyes growing wide. Ciel's marked eye blazed in plain sight.
Recovering quickly, the demon bowed, gloved hand across his chest.
"Ah…here might not be the best place," Zeb said, eyeing the demon. He'd known that Warden Michaelis was Ciel's demon, but being in the creature's presence when it must know the cat was out of the bag was a little unsettling.
"Why not?" Ciel asked, giving the dhampir a sharp look.
Zeb shook off his unsettled feeling and directed a smug smile at the boy.
"Because we'll need a place where no one can hear you scream."
A/N: The dhampirs and vampires in this fanfic are of my own creation and concept, so this is not a crossover piece. They should not match exactly any concept in any other story, especially the dhampirs. I don't think I've ever run across a dhampir that can take a soul. If anyone has seen a similar concept somewhere, please point me there. I'd be interested to see it.